Recommend To Me A Laptop (yes, another one)

[Flames89]

Hey CP,
So I did a quick search and the previous topics on this matter were fairly specific.

So my household windows laptop started dieing, and we are looking to replace it.

Things that matter to me (or so I believe) and general requirements
- Fun usage is mainly restricted to surfing internet, running plex, and downloading. Limited if any gaming.
- Work usage is large complex excel models (1000s of lines). This is the main reason I won't be going apple, as productivity loss here means more time spent in model than not working at home.
- Other uses will be VPNing into office

- Need a keyboard with number pad on the right
- Happy to have a 17" screen as like a big screen and the laptop will rarely be moved
- And finally, looks are important. Don't want a boxy looking ugly thing sitting in our home office.

I have been circling around on the same brands before reading bad reviews of one or the other. Lenovo (boxy, but good?), ASUS, Dell, Toshiba, and heard worse things about HP (plus don't like the look of them) and ACER.

Any help or recommendations would be appreciated. I read here it is worth it to go for SSD vs HDD.

Thanks

[Flames89]

Nothing?
There are no bad ideas (except for the bad ones)

[rbochan]

The Lenovo Thinkpad line is generally superb. They're built like tanks. Other lines are hit and miss. I wouldn't waste my money on most Dell laptops. Aside from the higher end models, you're getting essentially the same as the Toshiba or Asus, but spending hundreds more.

[Flames89]

Originally Posted by rbochan

The Lenovo Thinkpad line is generally superb. They're built like tanks. Other lines are hit and miss. I wouldn't waste my money on most Dell laptops. Aside from the higher end models, you're getting essentially the same as the Toshiba or Asus, but spending hundreds more.

Those Thinkpads may be built like tanks, but they look like tanks too.

For the other brands you are saying they are roughly the same, and you get what you pay for? So going higher end on any of them should be equivalent?

[rbochan]

Originally Posted by Flames89

Those Thinkpads may be built like tanks, but they look like tanks too.

For the other brands you are saying they are roughly the same, and you get what you pay for? So going higher end on any of them should be equivalent?

I love my Thinkpad, but I need something that will take a beating.

I tend to recommend the Toshiba or Asus to clients for general usage. Just about every single week a retailer will have one or the other in the $350 range. IMO, you can't beat them for the money. They aren't a Mercedes, but in most cases, a Hyundai will do. Most of them will have an Intel i3 or i5 or AMD equivalent CPU with plenty of ram and basic video. I've never seen a Dell that will beat them out of the box, unless you spend hundreds more to get a primo video card for gaming.
I wouldn't touch HP Laptops myself. Overpriced garbage that break too easily.

[DoubleF]

If you want productivity, the Envy 17" is out sole due to perhaps the light feeling keyboard.

Solid state drive will give you the best results (I suggest intel or Samsung SSD for easiest time to transfer the hard drive as it comes with drive transferring software usually and I've seen the least issues with them) after that I do like the sandisk and kingston drives.

I would suggest the following business grade laptops (commercial grade sucks)
- HP probook/elitebook (not the other crap commercial grade ones)
- Lenovo X or T series (thinkpad series, not the idea pad series)

Memoryexpress has some of these, but not all. Staples too. These laptops have the best keyboards I have ever had the pleasure of using on a laptop.

Not to say there aren't other laptops that might fit the bill of course.